Obscenely High Standards

Henry Royce was a man with obscenely high standards.

He didn’t invent the automobile, but by 1903 he was certain it would be an important technology. His insight was not obvious, as most cars of the time were relatively small and unreliable. They were more of an ornament for the wealthy than a functional tool.

Royce had no plans to emulate their design.

Instead, he went about systematically improving the quality of every single component of the automobile. The sum of those parts led to the quality that Rolls-Royce is still known for 120 years later.

Decades after Royce’s first car was built, a former employee shared the standards that he held to every component of the engineering process, down to the bolts that held metal together:

“I remember Royce carefully explaining to me how a hot rivet never filled a hole when it cooled. And a cold rivet was punishing the metal too much. So hot rivets won't do, cold rivets won't do, that's fine. We'll create something new. So we made taper bolts. And we fitted them perfectly in a hand-reamed hole. It is such details that explain the difference between Rolls-Royce and other cars. It was Royce himself, who taught us all the principles, which carried on in the whole organization. Think about that. Royce is the one that comes up with the principles and he spreads it through the entire organization. ”

Royce had high, exacting standards. He would not relent from them. The result is a brand with unparalleled respect in the marketplace.

Raise Your Standards.

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